Today in history

Today is Friday, May 13, the 133rd day of 2005. There are 232 days left in the year.

Today's Highlights in History:

On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.

On this date:

In 1607, the English colony at Jamestown, Va., was settled.

In 1842, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, who collaborated with Sir William Gilbert in writing 14 comic operas, was born in London.

In 1846, the United States declared that a state of war already existed against Mexico.

In 1918, the first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, were introduced. On some of the stamps, the airplane was printed upside-down, making them collector's items.

In 1940, in his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

In 1954, the musical play "The Pajama Game" opened on Broadway.

In 1958, Vice President Nixon's limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group's headquarters; 11 people died in the resulting fire.

In 1995, Army Capt. Lawrence Rockwood was convicted at his court-martial in Fort Drum, N.Y., of conducting an unauthorized investigation of reported human rights abuses at a Haitian prison (the next day, Rockwood was dismissed from the military, but received no prison time).

In 2000, explosions at a fireworks warehouse in the Netherlands killed 22 people and injured nearly 1,000 others.

In 2004, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited the Abu Ghraib prison camp in Iraq, where he insisted the Pentagon did not try to cover up abuses there. During a campaign swing in West Virginia, President Bush said he felt "disgraced" by the images of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners but reminded his listeners that actions of a handful of Americans should not sully the nation's military. TV anchorman Floyd Kalber died in Burr Ridge, Ill., at age 79.